File image.
A battle with ISIS seems to be brewing in the northern Syrian governorate of Idlib, the former stronghold of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which carried out, under the command of the current President Ahmad al-Sharaa, the lightning offensive that took down the regime of former President Bashar al-Assad last year.
Sharaa himself was a lieutenant of ISIS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. When the civil war first broke out, al-Baghdadi sent Sharaa, more known at the time by his nom de guerre “Abu Mohamad al-Julani”, to Syria to found the Nusra Front.
As the group evolved, it broke ties with ISIS and later al-Qaeda, eventually rebranding as HTS and turning Idlib and nearby areas into its stronghold.
After overthrowing the Assad regime, Sharaa was appointed as Interim President and HTS was dissolved. The group’s members went on to form the new military and security forces.
However, while Sharaa’s struggle with Assad came to an end last year, his struggle with ISIS appears to be about to reignite.
The Syrian Interior Ministry announced on December 16 that security forces arrested members of an ISIS cell believed to be responsible for a recent series of attacks that targeted military and security personnel in Idlib and the nearby governorate of Aleppo.
Just two days earlier, four security personnel were killed while on patrol near the town of Maaret al-Numan in Idlib in an attack later claimed by ISIS.
In a statement, the ministry said that it had increased surveillance and intensified its investigations after the attack, which led to the identification of the vehicle used by the suspects.
“Through monitoring and surveillance operations, security units were able to arrest three individuals, while another was neutralized. During interrogations, the detainees confessed to the involvement of four other individuals who participated in carrying out the terrorist operations,” the ministry said.
A second security operation was then carried out resulting in the arrest of five additional suspects, according to the ministry.
Click to see full-size image. (Syrian Interior Ministry)
Click to see full-size image. (Syrian Interior Ministry)
Click to see full-size image. (Syrian Interior Ministry)
Click to see full-size image. (Syrian Interior Ministry)
During interrogation, the suspects confessed to carrying out three “terrorist operations”, the ministry said, including the attack on Maaret al-Numan, an assault on Ministry of Defense personnel in the town of Saraqib in Idlib that left two dead, and an operation killing two customs officers in the Zarba area of Aleppo.
Click to see full-size image. (Syrian Interior Ministry)
Explosive belts, silencers, assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and other military equipment were seized during the security operations.
Click to see full-size image. (Syrian Interior Ministry)
Earlier in December, ISIS also claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack that claimed the life of a judicial official in the town of Deir Hassan in Idlib.
A day after the cell was uncovered in Idlib, people in some parts of the governorate woke up to find leaflets with a threat from ISIS. In the leaflets, the terrorist group condemned recent actions by the Syrian government, hinting at the decisions to resume relations with Russia and to join the United States-led coalition.
“What you see as liberation today, and are rushing to celebrate, is nothing but a role reversal with an Islamic veneer, and Islam is innocent of it,” the leaflets read.
Since Sharaa took the decision to join the coalition in November, ISIS has been linked to two rocket attacks that targeted an air base near Damascus where the U.S. is reported to be planning to deploy troops. This shows that the terrorist group may be already in the Syrian capital.
Both the U.S. and Syria also blamed ISIS for the December 13 attack in the city of Palmyra in the central governorate of Homs which killed two U.S. soldiers and a translator. However, links between the terrorist group and the attacker, a security personnel, are yet to be confirmed, according to a recent CNN report.
Saleh al-Hamoui, a former commander of HTS, warned after the deadly attack of ISIS growing influence within the military and security forces.
In a post on X, he alleged that up to 15 percent of the country’s security personnel were members of ISIS, and that up to 30 percent of military percent were the same.
All recent developments indicate that ISIS influence is rising, especially in Idlib which harboured terrorists for years during the civil war in Syria. With both the military and security forces compromised, the situation in Damascus can’t be considered much better.
A battle with ISIS could be devastating for Sharaa, as it could lead to defections and splits in his own forces. Still, he is doing nothing meaningful to address these threats.
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it’s obvious they are being patronised by wealthy elites who simply want to exploit their religious devotion in order to facilitate their intentions and remain hidden. it’s utter nonsense to pretend the secret services are clueless about any of it thats all they do.. absolute bollocks in the media as usual.
you mean like the psychopaths used christianity ? or as they used the poor in europe, for to invade north america ? its a shame those tanks in britain are not equipped with machine guns, and start to extinct the police. the cattle does not understand its cattle, they think the grass are greener on the other side of the fence.
us preachers get seven thousand dollars for recording sermons supporting israel.
tomara que se matem até o último. a civilização não barbara do planeta agradecerá
a nova guerra na síria:
turquia e governo sírio x curdos
alauítas x governo sírio
israel e drusos x governo sírio
portanto serão 3 guerras dentro da síria com estes atores uns contra os outros.
so that zionist moron shara is going to fight himself in idlib?
no, cia will probably handle him something to fight, and export weapon to both.
it depends what religion the director of the agency is. it’s not the agency per se, it’s about who’s controlling it. are they in the church of satan or the temple of set, are they atheists or agnostics, things like that make reality.
how can al jewlani be the president? what elections did he win? he has a mandate from netanyahu, trump and erdogan but he doesn’t have the mandate from the people of syria. southfront, please next time put the quotation marks for “president” as al nusra’s commander is a terrorist, not a legitimate president.
well, adolf hitler rothschild, and adolf trump both had some voting done for them, and both are (was) terrorists. its the method of voting which are wrong, hanging should solve the problem, before it occurs.
especially hanging of murderers, instead of vote for them.
i think its the norwegian child killers, which run the site, are so happy to lend out titles: “president” “peace price winner” and so on and on. thats for to foul people to think the blood thirsty animals are humans, a common psychopaths strategy.
that’s true in a way too. but it’s not complete. bloodthirsty psychopaths best defense is that are able to portray themselves as the charming ones its well known the phrase the charming psychopath.
now you’re just being silly again. hitler was an agent yes many agree, but not of the jews. he represented a class that are in their views international universalist without borders or barriers or silly notions like ethnic loyalty despite his aryan white supremacist stance, in a way. its convoluted though. everything’s simply complicated.
he was a “jew” himself, if you know from where the rothschild’s are. onto that, he wanted to commit suicide, by kill as many others as possible. very similar to todays serfs/elite in europe, both financed and controlled by “us”. join the neo-nazi site unz.com instead, they are very positive to the mental patients, both adolf hitler rothschild, and adolf trump.
you need to understand that sometimes it requires someone who is knowledgeable of the enemy in place to be able to fight fire with fire some” innocent “person would be made into mince meat in different circumstances
al jolani is an expendable puppet for israels use. isreal supports isis